City's water pipes OK; communication isn't

When it comes to water, San Angelo always seems to be in a glass-half-full position — there's good news and bad news.

The good news: The San Angelo Water Advisory Board heard an update on the $314,000 Water Distribution System Master Plan at its meeting on Wednesday, and out of 685 miles of water pipelines in the city, only 11 miles of pipelines were deemed in extreme need of attention and 154.4 miles of pipeline were deemed to be "negligible" or requiring little attention. The rest fell in between.

The bad news: The board has some serious concerns regarding communication.

Allen Woelke with CDM Smith — the firm putting together the plan — said age and condition of the pipes need to be addressed. He recommended a 1 percent replacement per year.

"The 1 percent replacement is an American Water Works Association recommendation, which is forever," said Bill Riley, the City's Water Utilities director. "The idea is if you replace 1 percent (of your pipes) per year you replace everything as it reaches its life expectancy. "

Bill Riley is the City of San Angelo's Water Utilities director.(Photo: Contributed)

The master plan evaluated all 23,890 pipes in the city's water distribution system, searched for leaks — 30 leaks detected in the 100 miles of pipes assessed — and checked pressure and flow. It also detected 964 pipeline breaks from 2011-16.

The company created a computer model based on all the information.

"We will leave the model for staff to be able to monitor the system and map future growth and development," Woelke said.

He added that the city's overall system is in pretty good shape, with a few low pressure issues and some issues involving service lines and meter boxes.

The Distribution System Master Plan, which was approved in May 2016, is almost complete, Woelke said.

Riley then asked the board to recommend awarding a $574,099 contract to Alan Plummer Associates, Inc. for a preliminary engineering study to determine the feasibility of various water supply options.

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A contractor connects pipe joints as a roller packs in the dirt around it, as part of the Hickory Pipeline project from a McCulloch County well field to San Angelo in 2013.(Photo: Standard-Times file)

The board unanimously voted to recommend to the City Council to award the contract for the study, but not before taking the city to task over a lack of communication.

"We seem to be always left in the dark except coming to ask us for recommendations to spend more money," said Kendall Hirschfeld, an advisory board member. "It's frustrating because it feels like a lot of what we do, we do in the dark, without knowing the bigger picture."

The board meets quarterly, so Riley reminded the members about discussions leading up to his current request. City staff presented a SWOT — which stands for strength, weakness, opportunities and threat — analysis of the various water supply options available in 2016. At that time the board directed him to seek requests for proposals based on that.

He said the city has 35 months of water supply. "Our existing surface water supplies are vulnerable to drought conditions," Riley said.

When O.C Fisher Reservoir dried up in 2013.(Photo: Courtesy City of San Angelo)

Some of the things Hirschfeld cited not knowing about included the West Texas Water Partnership and Ford Ranch/Hickory well-field plans. All of that, he said, factored into long-range planning.

The city's usage of the Hickory "is currently at 9,000 acre-feet; the maximum it can produce is 12. If we had (the well field) completely built out today, would it change the need to do (the study)?" Riley asked. "To me, not at all."

"I believe this needs to be done. ... I believe it's the right thing to do," Hirschfeld said. "I always hate not seeing the full picture and not knowing everything that's out there. ... I'm looking at you and pointing at you, but it's not you ... it's probably more like the guy sitting behind you."

City Manager Daniel Valenzuela sat silent among the audience members.

"We'd like to be kept in the loop," another board member added.

Riley said the board had been kept in the loop.

"From my perspective, y'all made a recommendation and I went off to do it," he said. "Now granted, I will be the first to admit, we should have kept you more informed of where we were in that process."

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Watching Our Water logo(Photo: Standard-Times)

He went on to say there were certain things he couldn't talk about, such as litigation

Mike Boyd, chairman of the board, added that the San Angelo public considered the board the public face for the city's water issues.

"It puts us in a very difficult position when we get asked questions that we can't answer," he said. "My message to council is whatever can be communicated to us needs to communicated to us. So we can answer the questions to the best of our abilities, even if it's to say we can't say anything because it's a litigation matter."

"I understand their position," Riley said later. "But you can't give away your advantage of what you're trying to accomplish."

After a pause, Riley added: "I have to do a better job of keeping them in the loop on what I can tell them."

Valenzuela spoke to Hirschfeld, other board members and Riley after the meeting. He said this was an opportunity to re-evaluate and improve how things are done, including making sure the quarterly meetings take place as scheduled.

"There should always be communication between the board and the city liaison (Riley in this case). While there are certain issues we can't discuss, if there's any information to share with them as an update or advice, then that needs to be covered with the board," Valenzuela said. "We're glad to have the board and appreciate working with them."

Hirschfeld summed up the board's position: "We're all in this together, and we're here to help the city. That's why all of us volunteered for this. ... I want to look long term for the water for my kids, for my grandkids. Water is so vital to this community, its economic development, beyond anything we can imagine."